Rational Insanity
“Lethal loving”
The question really is: Would I die for love?
Would I die for love? Well, that depends, but now, my answer would probably be no. I would French kiss an HIV positive lover though, because I know that HIV can only be passed on if I drank seven liters of contaminated saliva or if both my lover and I had open, bleeding wounds in our mouths. On the other hand, I would not kiss, or even as little as face someone with SARS which is spread by mere droplet infection (in other words, a sneeze from an infected person could get me SARS).
What have all these weird diseases done to this era of hopeless romantics? Shakespeare gave flesh and blood to the concept of dying for love with Romeo and Juliet, but their death there was not caused by bird flu or hepatitis B or AIDS! No matter how we try to poeticize and romanticize these lethal diseases we won’t even get close to dying a fairy tale death like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, and we definitely would not have a Prince Charming to wake us up. The only consolation we have nowadays, especially for those who are madly and hopelessly in love, is that we have enough technology to prevent these diseases or retard their progress if ever we acquired any of them. There’s nowhere else to go, do we die for love or quit loving altogether? The reality is that while we can prevent ourselves from loving, we cannot prevent ourselves from dying.
Where did all these diseases come from in the first place? Is someone contriving and conspiring against lovers in this world? Is a loveless, mad scientist out there, creating these diseases just so he could get back at lovers?
Well, the truth is, there is no mad scientist and asking where these diseases came from is just like asking why it rains. We all know that these diseases are salient manifestations of an angry environment, lashing back at us. These diseases are nature’s way of saying that we should control our population and in so doing, preserve our environment by conscientious consumption of resources. Unfortunately, since our libidos are too wild to contain, Mother Nature has acted on her own and unleashed upon the world a Pandora ’s Box of diseases to maintain the ecosystem by balancing births with deaths. Such a cruel Mother Nature, we might say, but this is the only way to prevent total world destruction and human extinction. On a personal note, I rather like Mother Nature’s decisive action; at least she created more jobs with the emergence of the condom and anti-viral/anti-biotic industry.
Now, where does love fit into all these muddled scheme of things? Honestly, I don’t know, perhaps, the title of this article should be ‘Sex at a time of Of HIV, SARS, Bird Flu, Atbp.’ Love is too sacred to be affined with diseases of the body. Even a heart attack should not be associated with love. The only reason that I said that I would not die for love was because love is not supposed to kill you, it is supposed to keep you alive, even beyond death, ‘Til death do us part,’ therefore, nobody really dies for love, because death has no power over love.
On the outset, however, this country is the only country in Asia untouched by the SARS, Bird Flu, and atbp. scare. Save of course for a few cases of HIV and AIDS, the Philippines is a relative paradise for those who think that these diseases can be a hindrance for love. Unlike China that is thinking about declaring an AIDS epidemic in the next few months, the Philippines has pulled together its meager resources to control the spread of the disease. Perhaps, this is where love comes in – if we really love somebody, fidelity is a must, and although there is no magic pill at the moment to cure HIV/AIDS, fidelity is second to none in preventing the disease from spreading.
Now, in this time when the moment you go out of your house, you are actually risking your life, we are drawn to considering not taking the risk of loving someone. If we could die just stepping out of our thresholds, then what horrors could happen to us if we go beyond the line and love someone? Don’t count on love to answer this question for you – protect yourself from disease, not from love, but if you really have to have to choose, slip a condom over your twinkie.
Be rational; be insane, every once in a while!TTFN!
Hello to my dearest readers, to Vanessa, to Lea, Jenny, Am-am, Dot, Verona, James, Sheen, Hellpen, Anne, Mary Dale, Chan,Michelle, Zarthus, Jonald, Mr. Bobot, Vic, Vincent, and Rex, Alex, Arvin, Corz, Jim, Kiara, Malikh, Audrae, Franz, Hendrick, Janice, Jay, Jim, Jonathan, Mark, Marz, Mel, Pres, Nhonoy, Niel, Piper, Rheavil, Joey, Alma, Rodolfo, Ecker, Ryan, Roni, Ian, Narle, Sunny and to Anuj of CMC, I love you all! Byers! Salamat gid sa mga walang-hintong text and reactions nyo! Catch Rational Insanity in TNT's online edition, check us out at www.thenewstoday.info, text me at (0920)9254269, or email me at prague@eudoramail.com. Byers! Mmmmmmmwah!
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Here are the answers to last week’s pop quiz as promised: 1. Give at least three Hiligaynon words that mean 'to carry', each word, although meaning 'to carry' refers to where the item is carried. Ans: sipit – to carry under the armpit, tus-on – to carry on the head, hakwat – to carry, as in to carry the body of a person; you may have other words, if you do, way to go! 2. Give at least two Hiligaynon words that mean 'to pinch'. Ans: kusi, gurinat, guripat, etc. 3. Translate 'kakabakaba ako' into Hiligaynon. Ans: ginakulbaan ako or ginakurdam ako, 4. 'Bungkaras' is one of the many Hiligaynon words that does not have an English translation. Give an English phrase that approximates the meaning of this Hiligaynon word. Ans: to wake up dazed from sleep, to scamper away quickly as in scampering away when we don’t want someone to see us, 5. 'Hikaplos' is a new contraction of two Hiligaynon words, give the two words used to create this contraction. (credit of 'hikaplos' given to 'Balikbayan Box' by Bryan Argos) Ans: Hikap and Haplos, 6. 'Matampait' is a new contraction of two Hiligaynon words, give the two words used to create this contracted word. (credit of 'matampait' given to 'Langit sa Tasa' by Marcel Milliam) Ans: Matam-is and Mapait, 7. True or false - The western equivalent of 'ASWANG' is 'WITCH' Ans: False – there is no accurate English word that approximates the aswang the way we know it because the Western witch is more synonymous with our bruha, manugbarang, or manughiwit. 8. What does 'binalaybay' mean? Ans: poem, 9. What word in the Hiligaynon language is a direct translation of 'light rain' in the English language. Clue: this Hiligaynon word is also used to mean a newly grown plant or sprout. Ans: salingsing – for this, note the clue. Other words exist in the Hiligaynon lexicon but it is salingsing that means both light rain and a newly grown plant or sprout, 10. 'Ginoo' and 'Diyos' are two words s referring to 'God' in Hiligaynon, give at least one other word. Ans : Makaako, Manugdihon, dihon is create, hence manugdihon can mean creator. So, how did you guys do? Let me know;-)